Shippers, battling escalating packaging costs, look for answers
Persistently high trucking rates are busting shipper budgets. At the same time, costs are escalating for all forms of packaging equipment and material. How can shippers and carriers manage these costs, while still delivering goods on time, intact, and claims-free?
Gary Frantz is a contributing editor for DC Velocity and its sister publication CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly, and a veteran communications executive with more than 30 years of experience in the transportation and logistics industries. He's served as communications director and strategic media relations counselor for companies including XPO Logistics, Con-way, Menlo Logistics, GT Nexus, Circle International Group, and Consolidated Freightways. Gary is currently principal of GNF Communications LLC, a consultancy providing freelance writing, editorial and media strategy services. He's a proud graduate of the Journalism program at California State University–Chico.
Greg Plemmons, senior vice president of sales for less-than-truckload carrier Old Dominion Freight Line, has lost count of the many “creative” methods shippers employ when preparing their goods to ride on a truck. Shrink wrap that doesn’t cover the bottom of a skid. Boxes of all different sizes and shapes stacked haphazardly on a pallet, sometimes too high for safety. A heavy piece of machinery riding on the same pallet with a bunch of boxes. Pallets of products destined for store shelf display, yet tendered without protective corner boards, extra cardboard dunnage, or slip sheets.
“Nowadays, nobody is keeping much inventory,” he says. “Warehouse folks are in a rush, goods are coming in at the last minute, so there is no wiggle room built in to allow for [the replacement of] damaged goods.” It’s also a sign of today’s hyperactive e-commerce–driven markets. Carriers must account for palletized and irregular-shaped industrial shipments from factories, coupled with those moving between warehouses and from distribution centers going to brick-and-mortar retail sites, as well as those destined for the consumer’s doorstep.
One somewhat unsettling trend: As packaging costs have increased and pressure to deliver intensifies, some shippers appear to be taking a “minimalist” approach, says Joe Medeiros, senior director of operations excellence at pallet rental company Peco Pallet. “Shippers are just shrink-wrapping stuff instead of combining things in a larger box and arranging boxes in an integrated pattern on the pallet for maximum safety and integrity,” he says.
The most common mistakes shippers make when building a pallet: letting boxes overhang the edge of the pallet, so the product “droops” and potentially can be damaged by freight handling equipment; “chimney stacking” products on a pallet instead of alternating the layers, which is a demand of big-box retailers who want boxes all facing the same way so they can go from truck to store floor with little additional handling; using an incorrect box; improper stacking; not using cardboard corners and slip sheets; and not using enough layers of shrink-wrap.
Taking such shortcuts “ultimately exposes the product to damage, the cost of which almost always outweighs what they thought they’d [save by] using less material,” he says.
ODFL’s Plemmons agrees. How shippers make packaging decisions, select material, package goods for shelf and shipping, and build out pallets makes a difference. Yet once it’s in the carrier’s hands, keeping that shipment claims-free takes extensive training, investment, and good old-fashioned “blocking and bracing.” That’s critical to damage prevention and can help alleviate poor packaging and pallet loading, he notes.
“The forces that come into play in the back of a trailer as it rides down the highway are considerable,” he says. ODFL did a test where it placed cameras inside a trailer, then drove it at 5 mph over a couple of speed bumps. “You would be amazed [at what happens] when something is not properly braced and loaded high and tight,” he says. “Fifty-gallon drums jumped a foot in the air. Space is your enemy when you are going down the road.”
Among the investments ODFL makes yearly to secure cargoes: 1.7 million air bags, 300,000 cargo straps, 15,000 rolls of corrugated paper, 2.5 million sheets of triple-wall cardboard, 10,000 pallets, and 90,000 sheets of plywood. And those investments have paid off. For the 12th consecutive year, ODFL was No. 1 in the annual Mastio study of less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier quality performance. The company boasts the lowest claims ratio in the business.
RISING COSTS ARE HERE TO STAY
Rising costs across the board are a reality that is not changing anytime soon. And for shippers, carriers, packaging engineers and vendors, and technology providers, it has ratcheted up the complexity—and cost—of matching the right product to the right box and packaging material to meet the need for speed and still survive the bumps and jolts of multiple distribution channels.
Demand for packaging material has exploded. Rachel Kenyon, senior vice president of the Fibre Box Association, the packaging industry trade group, notes that packaging material use has paralleled the burgeoning growth of e-commerce.
The industry produced roughly 390 billion square feet of corrugated product annually through the early 2000s, gradually increasing through 2018—due to the Amazon effect. Then the pandemic hit, creating a temporary dropoff, but as consumers began ordering any and all things online, volumes resumed their climb, to 407 billion square feet in 2020 and 416 billion square feet in 2021. Kenyon attributes much of that growth to e-commerce.
Importantly, Kenyon notes as well that recycled cardboard and paper continue to make up a significant share of raw material for new boxes. In 2021, 91% of cardboard produced and used was recycled. Consumers also are doing a better job on the recycling front, she says.
Ideally, boxes and packaging are engineered for things like weight, cube, and “burst” strength requirements that are specific to ensure protection of the product, with little extra space and the strength to survive transport and arrive at the store ready for the shelf, Kenyon notes. Yet today there are so many different distribution channels that add complexity and challenge.
“In an omnichannel world, you might have one box for a product, but you have to ask how is it reaching the end-user? Is it going to a consumer’s home or to a retail store, or another distribution channel with a third party? Is it moving in a parcel network or LTL? All that affects the decision, and it’s hard to take one box and make it do it all,” she explains. As a result, “sometimes you have overpacking to make sure [the product is protected] because you are engineering for any eventuality.”
TECHNOLOGY TO THE RESCUE
Much like technology has altered how we receive and consume information, it has also changed how products are packaged and shipped, the materials used, and how goods are presented to consumers. “It seems like technology plays a role in every part of our lives, and packaging is no exception,” observes Tobias Grasso, president of the Americas at Sealed Air Corp., perhaps best known for its ubiquitous Bubble Wrap-brand protective packing material but also a leader in automated packaging systems. “The protective packaging design process is continually evolving to keep up with changing technologies, materials, and logistics needs,” he notes.
Sealed Air offers a variety of products and systems to help shippers automate the packaging process and produce “right-sized” packaging that delivers proper cushioning to protect goods in transit. “The overarching objective remains the same: provide optimal product protection while utilizing the least amount of material and relying on engineering principles and strategies to customize solutions for each product and its shipping environment.”
He adds that the role of package integrity testing also is critical. Such testing helps validate that the packaging solution will do the job before the product ever ships in the real world.
According to Sealed Air, testing protocols can be created to screen for package integrity or to mimic actual transportation environments. Conducted in a controlled lab setting, typical tests might include vibration, dropping, and compression of a package, sometimes with a weighted load on top.
A vibration test might mimic an air, train, or truck delivery. Drop testing might shock-test a package from different corners, edges, and faces, from specific heights. All such tests provide valuable feedback for improvement while demonstrating and confirming the package design and construction meets performance expectations.
Grasso sees digital printing technology as a game-changer with promise to make packages “smarter”—for both consumers and shippers. “Digital printing allows every package to have a unique ID using different kinds of scannable codes,” he explains. Sealed Air recently launched Prismiq as a new digital packaging brand. The system, says Grasso, offers unmatched speed and flexibility, and is able to print on a variety of packaging goods such as bags and shrinkable materials. He believes such innovations “improve value by enabling automation, better traceability, and personalized connections with the consumer.”
SHIFTING AMONG CHANNELS
One challenge from the e-commerce boom has been the need for companies to shift from packaging products for retail store shelves to packaging them for direct-delivery to end-consumers. “A lot of [companies] were not really prepared for that significant of a shift,” says Marti Gooch, president of ShipStore, which offers a multicarrier shipment planning and optimization software platform, primarily for parcel and LTL. He sees a lot of shippers still using oversized boxes and excess packaging—which increase both packaging and freight costs.
To address that, ShipStore’s software takes in all of a product’s dimensions, assimilates those dimensions along with shipping information, and recommends the most effective box for the product and shipping need, “rather than allowing the picker on the floor to pick just any box,” he notes. “Shippers need to automate this decision and use technology as much as they possibly can,” he emphasizes.
Another trend is shippers using “box on demand” systems, which literally build the box to spec on site as the product is coming off an assembly or fulfillment line. “Our system can send the product dimensions to the on-demand machine, which then builds a custom-sized box at that moment,” he says.
With shippers’ box and packaging needs becoming ever more complex, “you have to be better at managing the edge crush test, how strong that box is relative to the product’s weight and where it’s going,” he says. “It has to be the right strength to survive the rigors of the distribution cycle,” whether it’s a parcel conveyor system or a truck running over potholes.
THE MISSED OPTIMIZATION OPPORTUNITY
Paccurate, which describes itself as a “carton optimization platform,” is another software system that helps shippers determine the ideal packaging configuration—for the product itself as well as to optimize shipping cost.
“Basically, our system tells the customer to use this box with this strength for this product running in this [distribution] channel,” says James Malley, Paccurate’s chief executive officer, who adds that the analysis not only optimizes for the best packaging/shipping solution, but also generates detailed real-time packing instructions to guide the packer on the fulfillment floor. The software platform also will take in the specifications for all of a shipper’s products and run simulations to help shippers accurately determine what size boxes to keep in stock.
In today’s e-commerce world, “the pressure is on to get the product out the door to the parcel carrier, or on a pallet ready to ship,” Malley notes. “Many don’t realize the scale of the opportunity to optimize for both packaging and freight beforehand,” he explains. “You can minimize the spend on corrugated. There also is a capacity resilience piece. When you adjust package size, without reducing strength or needed space, over thousands of packages, you’re reducing the amount of cube taken up in the trailer—and the number of trailers going out. Just by doing a little tweaking at the box level.”
With the cost of corrugated skyrocketing and record-high freight rates, Malley says demand for this type of packaging optimization is exploding. “We had more demo requests in the first quarter [of 2022] than in all of last year,” he says.
How can shippers ensure that the packaging they are using is both cost-effective and provides the necessary strength and protection to ensure product integrity? “Hire a [packaging engineering] professional and get them involved at the very beginning, when the product is being developed,” advises Ernie Schlitt, senior project manager for Stephen Gould Corp., a family-owned firm that has been in the packaging supply business for decades.
When designing a product and determining how it’s to be packaged, “you have to look all the way down to the end of the supply chain and understand what extraneous costs [will result from that design and the effect they] will have on shipping expenses in the end. If you could make that package one inch smaller, what would that save? Those decisions must be considered on the front end,” he says. “Once the product is being tooled, there’s no going back.”
Most of the apparel sold in North America is manufactured in Asia, meaning the finished goods travel long distances to reach end markets, with all the associated greenhouse gas emissions. On top of that, apparel manufacturing itself requires a significant amount of energy, water, and raw materials like cotton. Overall, the production of apparel is responsible for about 2% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report titled
Taking Stock of Progress Against the Roadmap to Net Zeroby the Apparel Impact Institute. Founded in 2017, the Apparel Impact Institute is an organization dedicated to identifying, funding, and then scaling solutions aimed at reducing the carbon emissions and other environmental impacts of the apparel and textile industries.
The author of this annual study is researcher and consultant Michael Sadowski. He wrote the first report in 2021 as well as the latest edition, which was released earlier this year. Sadowski, who is also executive director of the environmental nonprofit
The Circulate Initiative, recently joined DC Velocity Group Editorial Director David Maloney on an episode of the “Logistics Matters” podcast to discuss the key findings of the research, what companies are doing to reduce emissions, and the progress they’ve made since the first report was issued.
A: While companies in the apparel industry can set their own sustainability targets, we realized there was a need to give them a blueprint for actually reducing emissions. And so, we produced the first report back in 2021, where we laid out the emissions from the sector, based on the best estimates [we could make using] data from various sources. It gives companies and the sector a blueprint for what we collectively need to do to drive toward the ambitious reduction [target] of staying within a 1.5 degrees Celsius pathway. That was the first report, and then we committed to refresh the analysis on an annual basis. The second report was published last year, and the third report came out in May of this year.
Q: What were some of the key findings of your research?
A: We found that about half of the emissions in the sector come from Tier Two, which is essentially textile production. That includes the knitting, weaving, dyeing, and finishing of fabric, which together account for over half of the total emissions. That was a really important finding, and it allows us to focus our attention on the interventions that can drive those emissions down.
Raw material production accounts for another quarter of emissions. That includes cotton farming, extracting gas and oil from the ground to make synthetics, and things like that. So we now have a really keen understanding of the source of our industry’s emissions.
Q: Your report mentions that the apparel industry is responsible for about 2% of global emissions. Is that an accurate statistic?
A: That’s our best estimate of the total emissions [generated by] the apparel sector. Some other reports on the industry have apparel at up to 8% of global emissions. And there is a commonly misquoted number in the media that it’s 10%. From my perspective, I think the best estimate is somewhere under 2%.
We know that globally, humankind needs to reduce emissions by roughly half by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 to hit international goals. [Reaching that target will require the involvement of] every facet of the global economy and every aspect of the apparel sector—transportation, material production, manufacturing, cotton farming. Through our work and that of others, I think the apparel sector understands what has to happen. We have highlighted examples of how companies are taking action to reduce emissions in the roadmap reports.
Q: What are some of those actions the industry can take to reduce emissions?
A: I think one of the positive developments since we wrote the first report is that we’re seeing companies really focus on the most impactful areas. We see companies diving deep on thermal energy, for example. With respect to Tier Two, we [focus] a lot of attention on things like ocean freight versus air. There’s a rule of thumb I’ve heard that indicates air freight is about 10 times the cost [of ocean] and also produces 10 times more greenhouse gas emissions.
There is money available to invest in sustainability efforts. It’s really exciting to see the funding that’s coming through for AI [artificial intelligence] and to see that individual companies, such as H&M and Lululemon, are investing in real solutions in their supply chains. I think a lot of concrete actions are being taken.
And yet we know that reducing emissions by half on an absolute basis by 2030 is a monumental undertaking. So I don’t want to be overly optimistic, because I think we have a lot of work to do. But I do think we’ve got some amazing progress happening.
Q: You mentioned several companies that are starting to address their emissions. Is that a result of their being more aware of the emissions they generate? Have you seen progress made since the first report came out in 2021?
A: Yes. When we published the first roadmap back in 2021, our statistics showed that only about 12 companies had met the criteria [for setting] science-based targets. In 2024, the number of apparel, textile, and footwear companies that have set targets or have commitments to set targets is close to 500. It’s an enormous increase. I think they see the urgency more than other sectors do.
We have companies that have been working at sustainability for quite a long time. I think the apparel sector has developed a keen understanding of the impacts of climate change. You can see the impacts of flooding, drought, heat, and other things happening in places like Bangladesh and Pakistan and India. If you’re a brand or a manufacturer and you have operations and supply chains in these places, I think you understand what the future will look like if we don’t significantly reduce emissions.
Q: There are different categories of emission levels, depending on the role within the supply chain. Scope 1 are “direct” emissions under the reporting company’s control. For apparel, this might be the production of raw materials or the manufacturing of the finished product. Scope 2 covers “indirect” emissions from purchased energy, such as electricity used in these processes. Scope 3 emissions are harder to track, as they include emissions from supply chain partners both upstream and downstream.
Now companies are finding there are legislative efforts around the world that could soon require them to track and report on all these emissions, including emissions produced by their partners’ supply chains. Does this mean that companies now need to be more aware of not only what greenhouse gas emissions they produce, but also what their partners produce?
A: That’s right. Just to put this into context, if you’re a brand like an Adidas or a Gap, you still have to consider the Scope 3 emissions. In particular, there are the so-called “purchased goods and services,” which refers to all of the embedded emissions in your products, from farming cotton to knitting yarn to making fabric. Those “purchased goods and services” generally account for well above 80% of the total emissions associated with a product. It’s by far the most significant portion of your emissions.
Leading companies have begun measuring and taking action on Scope 3 emissions because of regulatory developments in Europe and, to some extent now, in California. I do think this is just a further tailwind for the work that the industry is doing.
I also think it will definitely ratchet up the quality requirements of Scope 3 data, which is not yet where we’d all like it to be. Companies are working to improve that data, but I think the regulatory push will make the quality side increasingly important.
Q: Overall, do you think the work being done by the Apparel Impact Institute will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the industry?
A: When we started this back in 2020, we were at a place where companies were setting targets and knew their intended destination, but what they needed was a blueprint for how to get there. And so, the roadmap [provided] this blueprint and identified six key things that the sector needed to do—from using more sustainable materials to deploying renewable electricity in the supply chain.
Decarbonizing any sector, whether it’s transportation, chemicals, or automotive, requires investment. The Apparel Impact Institute is bringing collective investment, which is so critical. I’m really optimistic about what they’re doing. They have taken a data-driven, evidence-based approach, so they know where the emissions are and they know what the needed interventions are. And they’ve got the industry behind them in doing that.
The global air cargo market’s hot summer of double-digit demand growth continued in August with average spot rates showing their largest year-on-year jump with a 24% increase, according to the latest weekly analysis by Xeneta.
Xeneta cited two reasons to explain the increase. First, Global average air cargo spot rates reached $2.68 per kg in August due to continuing supply and demand imbalance. That came as August's global cargo supply grew at its slowest ratio in 2024 to-date at 2% year-on-year, while global cargo demand continued its double-digit growth, rising +11%.
The second reason for higher rates was an ocean-to-air shift in freight volumes due to Red Sea disruptions and e-commerce demand.
Those factors could soon be amplified as e-commerce shows continued strong growth approaching the hotly anticipated winter peak season. E-commerce and low-value goods exports from China in the first seven months of 2024 increased 30% year-on-year, including shipments to Europe and the US rising 38% and 30% growth respectively, Xeneta said.
“Typically, air cargo market performance in August tends to follow the July trend. But another month of double-digit demand growth and the strongest rate growths of the year means there was definitely no summer slack season in 2024,” Niall van de Wouw, Xeneta’s chief airfreight officer, said in a release.
“Rates we saw bottoming out in late July started picking up again in mid-August. This is too short a period to call a season. This has been a busy summer, and now we’re at the threshold of Q4, it will be interesting to see what will happen and if all the anticipation of a red-hot peak season materializes,” van de Wouw said.
The report cites data showing that there are approximately 1.7 million workers missing from the post-pandemic workforce and that 38% of small firms are unable to fill open positions. At the same time, the “skills gap” in the workforce is accelerating as automation and AI create significant shifts in how work is performed.
That information comes from the “2024 Labor Day Report” released by Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), the firm’s government relations and public policy arm.
“We continue to see a labor shortage and an urgent need to upskill the current workforce to adapt to the new world of work,” said Michael Lotito, Littler shareholder and co-chair of WPI. “As corporate executives and business leaders look to the future, they are focused on realizing the many benefits of AI to streamline operations and guide strategic decision-making, while cultivating a talent pipeline that can support this growth.”
But while the need is clear, solutions may be complicated by public policy changes such as the upcoming U.S. general election and the proliferation of employment-related legislation at the state and local levels amid Congressional gridlock.
“We are heading into a contentious election that has already proven to be unpredictable and is poised to create even more uncertainty for employers, no matter the outcome,” Shannon Meade, WPI’s executive director, said in a release. “At the same time, the growing patchwork of state and local requirements across the U.S. is exacerbating compliance challenges for companies. That, coupled with looming changes following several Supreme Court decisions that have the potential to upend rulemaking, gives C-suite executives much to contend with in planning their workforce-related strategies.”
Stax Engineering, the venture-backed startup that provides smokestack emissions reduction services for maritime ships, will service all vessels from Toyota Motor North America Inc. visiting the Toyota Berth at the Port of Long Beach, according to a new five-year deal announced today.
Beginning in 2025 to coincide with new California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards, STAX will become the first and only emissions control provider to service roll-on/roll-off (ro-ros) vessels in the state of California, the company said.
Stax has rapidly grown since its launch in the first quarter of this year, supported in part by a $40 million funding round from investors, announced in July. It now holds exclusive service agreements at California ports including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Hueneme, Benicia, Richmond, and Oakland. The firm has also partnered with individual companies like NYK Line, Hyundai GLOVIS, Equilon Enterprises LLC d/b/a Shell Oil Products US (Shell), and now Toyota.
Stax says it offers an alternative to shore power with land- and barge-based, mobile emissions capture and control technology for shipping terminal and fleet operators without the need for retrofits.
In the case of this latest deal, the Toyota Long Beach Vehicle Distribution Center imports about 200,000 vehicles each year on ro-ro vessels. Stax will keep those ships green with its flexible exhaust capture system, which attaches to all vessel classes without modification to remove 99% of emitted particulate matter (PM) and 95% of emitted oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Over the lifetime of this new agreement with Toyota, Stax estimated the service will account for approximately 3,700 hours and more than 47 tons of emissions controlled.
“We set out to provide an emissions capture and control solution that was reliable, easily accessible, and cost-effective. As we begin to service Toyota, we’re confident that we can meet the needs of the full breadth of the maritime industry, furthering our impact on the local air quality, public health, and environment,” Mike Walker, CEO of Stax, said in a release. “Continuing to establish strong partnerships will help build momentum for and trust in our technology as we expand beyond the state of California.”
That result showed that driver wages across the industry continue to increase post-pandemic, despite a challenging freight market for motor carriers. The data comes from ATA’s “Driver Compensation Study,” which asked 120 fleets, more than 150,000 employee drivers, and 14,000 independent contractors about their wage and benefit information.
Drilling into specific categories, linehaul less-than-truckload (LTL) drivers earned a median annual amount of $94,525 in 2023, while local LTL drivers earned a median of $80,680. The median annual compensation for drivers at private carriers has risen 12% since 2021, reaching $95,114 in 2023. And leased-on independent contractors for truckload carriers were paid an annual median amount of $186,016 in 2023.
The results also showed how the demographics of the industry are changing, as carriers offered smaller referral and fewer sign-on bonuses for new drivers in 2023 compared to 2021 but more frequently offered tenure bonuses to their current drivers and with a greater median value.
"While our last study, conducted in 2021, illustrated how drivers benefitted from the strongest freight environment in a generation, this latest report shows professional drivers' earnings are still rising—even in a weaker freight economy," ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said in a release. "By offering greater tenure bonuses to their current driver force, many fleets appear to be shifting their workforce priorities from recruitment to retention."